Friday October 10, 2008, 6:01 pm
obama will win Mccain made a gamble and lost Palin was a joke and the American people were the ones Mccain/Rove Davis/Switt were laughing at

Friday October 10, 2008, 6:21 pm
To use a play from her own playbook...who is thi woman who arrived on the national scene a mere 5 weeks ago??? 3 years less than Obama? Why should we we trust this unpatriotic, unAmerican who is associated with a Secessionist terrorist group? Arrest her now!

Friday October 10, 2008, 6:37 pm
Campaign's version of events
In an effort to head off the report, McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin released the campaign's own version of events. That report, which Griffin said was written by campaign staffers, says the Legislature has taken a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and one of her commissioners, and portrayed it as something inappropriate.

Campaign blames former opponent
The campaign's report blames former campaign opponent Andrew Halcro, who has a blog, of conspiring with Wooten to pin Monegan's dismissal on the family's dispute with Wooten. Three days after Monegan was fired, they say, Wooten told his ex-wife, Palin's sister, that: "You guys are going down. Get ready for the show."

Two days after that confrontation, they say, Halcro and Wooten met at a hotel bar in Anchorage for more than three hours — and that evening, Halcro posted the first accusations on his blog that Monegan had been fired because of a vendetta against Wooten by the Palin family.

"It is tragic that a false story hatched by a blogger after drinks with Trooper Wooten led the legislature to allocate over $100,000 of public money to be spent in what has become a politically driven investigation," the 21-page report concludes.

Although the campaign report describes Wooten as a separate issue, the McCain campaign goes into great detail about the "rogue" trooper and his "long history of unstable and erratic behavior." The campaign describes allegations of violence, including threatening Palin's family and shooting his stepson with a stun gun.

The campaign's report also includes allegations that Wooten cheated the workers' compensation system. Todd Palin has said he had numerous conversations with government officials about why Wooten was allowed to stay on the job.

"The Palins make no apologies for wanting to protect their family and wanting to bring attention to the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge and abusing the workers' compensation system."

But Todd Palin said he never pressured anyone, including his wife.

The McCain campaign says the investigation has become "muddied with innuendo, rumor and partisan politics."


WE'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THE B.S. REPUBLICON CAMPAIGN -BUT PLEASE GO AHEAD -KEEP MAKING IT WORSE ON YOURSELVES, LOL.

Friday October 10, 2008, 7:21 pm
arrest her now hang her on a tree and let the animals get her

Friday October 10, 2008, 7:29 pm
No(honeysuckebarb) that is no better than what Mccain/Palin were tring to do to Obama That is not what we want to see happen to our country

Friday October 10, 2008, 8:08 pm
KKK in reverse Honey?...Welllllll what can I say Mae B. nothing?...But thanks for the thread! X

Saturday October 11, 2008, 12:05 am

This is a separate crime that seems to have been overlooked in getting to the bottom of Palin's revengeful nature;


"Gov. Palin knowingly "permitted Todd to use the governor's office and the resources of the governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired," Branchflower's report reads."

Saturday October 11, 2008, 12:07 am
Golden.
Thanks Mae, now I will get a good nights sleep.

Delightful news to note.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 7:35 am
I do wonder what will happen to todd if he is found guilty tampering with medical records. I had to get bonded back when I was in Medical Release. As it is not an offense taken lightly -one could actually serve time.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 8:43 am
This is only the beginning of the beginning. If the real Alaskans have their say, and if there is ANY justice in this world, Sarah will soon be moving out of the governor's mansion into an igloo . . . hopefully on a melting ice cap.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 8:51 am
You have to wonder, has McCain done his homework? And more importantly was McCain really the best choice for his party? I personally believe that politics is scripted and it's all smoke and mirrors. It is in my belief that Obama hasbeen hand pick for the next President of the United States and things are being done to give the voters no choice but to vote for him; and if they don't we'll have another president "select" instead of elect.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 9:11 am
None of us were surprised to hear that she was guilty are we? I am just glad to know that this came out now, before it may have been too late. Thanks Mae.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 9:38 am
The Troopergate Report

By: Hilzoy


Following up on Steve's comments: I have read through the first 81 pages of the Troopergate report
(pdf). (If you want to cut to the chase, read the findings, p. 8, and the explanation of the first finding, pp. 48-68.) To my mind, what's interesting about the report is completely independent of what one thinks of Trooper Wooten.

If Wooten did something wrong, there are legal remedies for that fact. It would, to my mind, be OK for Palin to ask someone to make sure that the investigation into his conduct had been thorough and fair, but it is not at all OK to try to use her power to strip him of his livelihood. If Sarah Palin and her husband thought he was a threat to their family, the right response to that would be to make sure that the people Wooten had threatened had security. (In fact, the report finds that she cut back her security detail.) It is not to try to take away his job, which would, if anything, make him more likely to hurt people, not less. And it is certainly not to fire Walt Monegan.

***

The Palins really seem to have had it in for Wooten. This was obvious before -- most people don't try to get someone fired just for kicks -- but reading all the details makes it really clear. The report lists nine people whom Todd Palin contacted about Wooten; two say that he had "numerous conversations" and "10-20x", respectively, and the report lists nine contacts with the other seven. Sarah Palin contacted Monegan three times and another person twice; and her Chief of Staff, Commissioner of Administration, Attorne

That's a whole lot of contacts. Enough to make this claim by Governor Palin seem not just false, but absurd:

"Governor Palin says, "All I know what the facts are and what the truth is. And the truth is never was there any pressure put on Commissioner Monegan to hire or fire anybody.""


It also makes it very hard to believe Palin's claim that she only became aware in mid-August that people in her administration had contacted Monegan and others about Wooten. That might be true if all the contacts had come from Todd Palin. But the idea that she was unaware not just that her husband was calling people, but that her Chief of Staff, Commissioner of Administration, Attorney General, and Director of Boards and Commissions were doing so, defies belief.

Moreover, the Palins seem to have had access to a private investigator's report on Wooten (p. 18). And Todd Palin called people on several occasions to inform them of something Wooten seems to have done wrong that, absent a whole lot of coincidences, he could only have known if he was having Wooten followed, or if he was himself stalking Wooten. Once he called to say that Wooten, who had been injured, was riding his snowmobile, that he (Palin) had pictures, and that he "thought there might be some workers' compensation fraud issues." (p. 29.) It turned out that Wooten had consulted with his doctor before going snowmobiling. Another time, Todd Palin called to say that Wooten had been seen dropping his kids off at school in a marked police vehicle. It turned out that Wooten had his supervisor's permission to do so. (p. 32.) It's pretty strange.

Generally, the report makes it sound as though the Palins, especially Todd Palin, were just obsessed with Wooten, in a truly peculiar and creepy way.

In addition, both Palins treated their subordinates terribly. As I said above, I can understand wanting to make sure that the initial investigation of Wooten had been fair and thorough. If Sarah Palin had those concerns, it would have been fine for her to ask about them, provided she made it clear that she did not mean to pressure anyone. Both the Colonel in charge of the investigation and Monegan took the Palins' initial inquiries in this way: as attempts to make sure that everything had been done right. And had the Palins stopped there, there would be no problem.

But they didn't. And it is absolutely not OK to go on calling people about it even after those people have made it clear that they cannot do anything else, and that the Palins' continued contacts were inappropriate.

Walt Monegan warned Palin about further contact several times. ("Monegan: And I said ma'am, I need you to keep an arm's length at this -- on this issue." (p. 28)) When her various subordinates called him about Wooten, he told them that if Wooten ever sued, their attempts to talk to him would be discoverable as evidence, and might make both the State of Alaska and them personally liable in court. He was very, very clear about the need to back off, and the consequences of not doing so.

To my mind, you should not ask your subordinates to do something that violates the rules in the first place. But if, for some reason, you do, and your subordinates tell you, correctly, that they cannot do it without violating the rules, and moreover that your continued efforts are exposing both you and them to legal liability, you back off. Leaving aside any unfairness to Wooten, this is just completely unfair to your subordinates.

Many of us have either been asked by a superior to do something illegal or wrong, or know someone who was. It's a horrible position to be in: to be asked to choose between your job and morality or the law. A good boss will not put his subordinates in this position in the first place. But no boss who had a shred of decency, or who saw her subordinates as people and not as mere underlings, would keep pressing after her subordinates had made it clear that they did not want to do it, or that they were uncomfortable doing something that was morally or legally wrong.

People who do this are just petty tyrants. That's especially true in this case, when the Palins went on pressing after their subordinates had made it clear that they were not just uncomfortable being asked to do this, but were being exposed to legal liability. Moreover, while I suppose there might be cases in which the stakes were high enough to justify this sort of behavior -- in which, say, I had to ask a subordinate to do something illegal in order to save the planet from annihilation -- doing it just to get your ex-brother-in-law fired is inexcusable.

***

This is, at bottom, a story about the rule of law, and the rules governing the exercise of political power. If you accept those rules, then you think that people should be hired or fired based on their job performance, not on whether or not you personally have it in for them. If they do something that actually merits firing, then they should be fired; if not, not.

If you don't accept the rule of law, you might think that taking political power allows you to take any kind of vengeance you want on anyone who crosses you. This includes not just your ex-brother-in-law, but perfectly good Public Safety Commissioners who do not do your bidding.

Not accepting those rules is wrong in its own right. The state has enormous power, and one of the things that keeps it in check is that public officials are expected not to use it to advance personal vendettas. Sarah and Todd Palin obviously disagree. This fact alone should disqualify them from high office.

But it's also wrong because it prevents people from doing their actual jobs. Firing Monegan because he wouldn't fire Wooten obviously deprived Alaska of a perfectly good Public Safety Commissioner. But besides that, every minute that Sarah Palin's staff spent talking to someone about Wooten, and every minute that Monegan and his subordinates had to spend listening to them, was a minute that they were not spending advancing the interests of the people of Alaska, who paid their salaries.

We pay public servants to advance our interests, not theirs. When we discover that someone has put their interests above ours, we should punish them, at least if we want to give them any incentive to do their jobs right. We should not reward bullies who try to use their power over their subordinates to advance their own agendas. And if this report is at all accurate, Sarah and Todd Palin are bullies.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 10:21 am
People are pointing out that life in Alaska is very different from life in the Lower 48. I can appreciate that, by golly. Noted and respected for what it is. But in government, that brand of "family politics" where your husband does the dirty work for you is unacceptable in professional politics, certainly in Washington.

I'm by no means an expert, but it seems to me that the Palins are simply amateurs in a remote area that bears little resemblance to the rest of the United States. Simple folk who do folksy things. I think Alaska generally likes that general philosophy and part of me does, too; it's nice to have a place left on this continent that seems wild and frontier like in this increasingly cemented-over global existence.

But it takes more than folksiness to lead the United States as a whole. I think Ms.Palin is simply far too inexperienced and under-educated in the global sphere to be vice president or president at this time in her career.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 12:46 pm
McCain's people "hoped to spare her the embarrassment until after the election"? What kind of big fat lie is that? They should have said the Republicans don't have a snowball's chance in hell if the public finds out the truth before election day. I hope this just puts them in a deeper hole.....NO MORE BUSH! Thanks, Mae, a day brightener.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 1:10 pm

It is alright however. Remember Palin's have strong morals and represent church taking over govt. The evangelist seem to accept any means to achieve their end as AOK and Honky Dory.
These facts won't phase her base a wink or nod.
(o:

Saturday October 11, 2008, 2:34 pm
McCain: Please do the honorable thing now
and dump Sarah Palin and replace
her with Congressman Ron Paul!

Saturday October 11, 2008, 4:04 pm
Wow, this really gets peoples interests, doesn't it. In the grand scheme of things I rate this about a -1.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 4:15 pm
I'm not an American, but I must say your politics are so much like ours! A total circus and a pot full of lies. One wonders if any of these politicians have ever thought about the words 'I swear to protect my country from harm, in fact I'm putting myself in harms way to protect my country'.

Saturday October 11, 2008, 4:53 pm
They all lie and this is just another one that puts the iceing on the cake to prove it. As far as I'm concered I could care less about her I do care about our enviroment and our animals as which she does not. I'm not voting any way. Its No in November for me. Thanks May

Saturday October 11, 2008, 5:11 pm
Joy, I have about 1000 people who instead of not voting at all, going to write my name in John Olexa.. I'm serious Kinda neat.

Look at my profile and think if I was President LMBO!!!

Saturday October 11, 2008, 7:36 pm
SHE !! SUCKS !!

Saturday October 11, 2008, 8:58 pm
Julie H. You may not be an expert, but you nailed it with your comment, " the Palins are simply amateurs in a remote area that bears little resemblance to the rest of the United States." Certainly in smalltown Wasilla and Alaska they could and did get away with a lot of BS that would not be tolerated elsewhere. Sarah Palin's political ambitions and actions are now being scrutinized by EVERYONE...in every state of the USA and in other countries as well. So Be It!!

Saturday October 11, 2008, 9:04 pm
Do ya think she's trying to demonstrate how quickly she can screw up if she were to get in? I mean like that whole party ain't nothing but a bunch of screw ups, many were in trouble over really strange things in the recent past, like that one guy that was soliciting in the mens bathroom. What next????

Saturday October 11, 2008, 10:18 pm
I'm afraid even the animals would find her too much of a joke to eat her....XD

Saturday October 11, 2008, 10:46 pm

Believe it or not this is FOX Headlines;

Palin Inquiry Update
Ethics inquiry states Gov. Palin was 'proper and lawful' in firing a state commissioner

Saturday October 11, 2008, 11:07 pm
unfortunately that is why i am not watching fox or two of my local stations until after the elections. very possible they lost me altogether as a viewer. some of my favorite channels got blasted by the repugs for delivering the truth. while the channels that flat out lie get a pat on the back. i'm still peeved. my local cbs one morning said obama was losing his lead -i got freaked out -it was just another one of their lies!! i won't give up katie -but the rest can go to he!!.

Sunday October 12, 2008, 4:11 am
they don't want the truth out, check out Politifact.com before condemning good men, there is no terrorist in this race, unless you count someone who hunts down wild animals on the grounds of them being predators, who is the real predator here? If Palin can damage someone like Wooten, what do we expect she will do to, not for, us?
ty Mae

Sunday October 12, 2008, 2:51 pm
Kevin Drum: Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the report on the Troopergate imbroglio is learning how shockingly amateurish the Palin administration is.